Outspoken Mrs. Bush In Jordan

First lady Laura Bush arrived in Jordan late Friday to start a Mideast swing she hopes will help repair America's image in the Arab world.

Her jet touched down at the airport near Amman in late afternoon, and she went straight to her hotel in the Jordanian capital. Soldiers in camouflage dotted her motorcade route, and the hotel complex was guarded by armed Humvees.

In the morning, Mrs. Bush speaks to the World Economic Forum, meets with King Abdullah and Queen Rania, has a session with Jordanian youngsters and tours Mount Nebo.

Speaking to reporters on her plane, an unusually candid first lady said incidents like the retracted Newsweek report on desecration of the Quran and the documented prisoner abuse in Iraq are "terrible happenings" that have "really hurt" America's image.

But, in a departure from the White House line, she said Newsweek should not be held solely responsible for the violent protest that followed its story. In America, she said, if there's a terrible report, people don't riot and kill.

She also said her husband should have been interrupted during a bicycle ride last week to be told that the White House and Capitol were under an emergency evacuation.

Her remarks showed anew Mrs. Bush's willingness to step out more boldly in her husband's second term. Usually deferential to her husband and rarely controversial, she has veered off the White House message only rarely in the past.

But there was no mistaking that her views were at odds with White House officials as she chatted with reporters on her plane as she flew across the Atlantic.

The White House has defended the decision not to stop President Bush on a bike ride last week to tell him of an emergency evacuation that sent thousands of people running from the Capitol and the White House. The scare was triggered by a small plane flying into restricted airspace over Washington. Mr. Bush was not informed until he finished his ride in suburban Maryland, about 50 minutes after the evacuation began.

"I think he should have been interrupted," Mrs. Bush declared, hastening to add, "but I'm not going to second-guess the Secret Service that were with him."Asked about her comment, presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said, "I think the president and the first lady have both said they have full confidence in the Secret Service. He feels that the protocols were followed, he is confident that they were. I don't think that I have anything further."

Mrs. Bush said she hoped her trip would help improve the U.S. image in the Arab world after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and the now-retracted Newsweek report that American interrogators desecrated the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

Newsweek at first apologized for its story and then retracted it under heavy pressure from the administration. The White House blamed the magazine's account for triggering anti-American protests in Afghanistan in which police fired on demonstrators and killed about 15 people.

Mrs. Bush said Newsweek can't be held solely responsible for the rioters' violence — her second departure from the White House line – even though she considered the report irresponsible.

"In the United States if there's a terrible report, people don't riot and kill other people," she said. "And you can't excuse what they did because of the mistake — you know, you can't blame it all on Newsweek."

Mrs. Bush said the Newsweek report compounded anti-American sentiment stemming from the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. She said that abuse was "not any sort of typical thing from the United States."

"We've had terrible happenings that have really, really hurt our image of the United States," she said. "And people in the United States are sick about it."

The first lady said she wants people in the Arab world to know that America is tolerant of people from all religions and that people of all faiths participate in the democracy. She said she will highlight U.S. funding for projects that support childhood education and opportunities for women in the region.

A later stop in Egypt will take her to one place in the region that is struggling to open its democracy. Egypt is allowing multicandidate presidential elections for the first time, though opposition groups say President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party has a say over which independent candidates can run.

Mrs. Bush clearly wanted to avoid commenting on that controversy on her goodwill tour and just repeated her husband's past statements.

"I can only tell you what the president said, which is that it's very important for these to be free elections, for the world to see that they are free elections," she said.